The present invention relates to an egg weighing apparatus.
The handling of shell eggs for marketing has matured into a volume production business. Chicken farms housing hundreds of thousands and even millions of egg laying chickens utilize high speed collection systems which collect the eggs laid by the chickens, washes, candles, checks the egg shells for cracks, grades the eggs generally by weight, sorts the eggs into groups according to the grade or weight and then packages the eggs for shipping.
While the grade contains several different categories, such as jumbo, large, medium, small and others, each grade is generally defined by a very small range of weights which may be set by government regulations or customer demand.
The extremely large number and the high speed of the egg handling equipment necessitates that the weighing of each egg take place quickly, typically in less than one second.
Generally, a high speed egg handling apparatus will utilize a weighing station which contains multiple scales which are capable of weighing each egg passing over the scale and generating an output signal to a computer which stores the weight with a particular egg identification to track the egg through the handling and sorting process.
Known egg weighing apparatus or scales utilize damping means to reduce the oscillations caused in the scale as each egg drops into the weighing platform or perch. Damping is usually accomplished by shearing a viscous fluid. However, optimal damping can be difficult to maintain over extended time and temperatures. Further, all of the damping fluid must be contained from loss.
In addition, the egg handling facility requires frequent washing to maintain a high level of sanitary conditions. The application of high pressure cleaning solutions or water may be used in most portions of the egg handling equipment, such as the conveyers, sorters, etc. However, the precision weighing apparatus have not heretofore been capable of being cleaned through high pressure fluid application due to the design of the scales themselves. This has necessitated gentle hand washing which slows the cleaning operation.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an egg weighing apparatus for high speed egg handling equipment which addresses the deficiencies of previously devised egg weighing apparatus.